European Studies Essays Inter-War Period

European Studies Essays Inter-War Period What conditions existed in the countries of central and Eastern Europe in the inter-war period that allowed the Communists to take power there after 1945? Various factors contributed to the emergence of communist regimes in Central and Eastern Europe after 1945, some arguably in the Inter-war period. These factors differed in effect and contribution from country to country. The factors will be discussed in greater detail below. Individual countries within the central and Eastern European region had communist parties with various levels of support and capabilities. Above all the situation in the Inter-war period presented internal and external factors that allowed for the implementation of communist regimes aligned to the Soviet Union, the debate being whether these factors contributed to the communist takeovers after 1945. Some of the countries in the region, most notably Poland had suffered under Nazi occupation whilst other countries such as Romania and Hungary had been allied to Germany. Politically much of the region could have been described as backward at the start of the Inter-war period (excepting the Czechoslovaks and Hungaria ns) and not as advanced as their western neighbours. Political backwardness was not a stumbling block to the communists obtaining power as Lenin and Trotsky had proved in Russia in October 1917. Aside from a short-lived Soviet Republic in Hungary during 1919 the communists had failed to gain power in the region prior to 1945.   Socialists rather than communists dominated the Hungarian Soviet Republic. Indeed the removal of the Soviet Republic led to the counter revolutionary if not fascist regime of Horthy who violently repressed the radical socialists and communists. The communists were ousted but they were not destroyed and were able to survive their persecution.   Lenins hopes of a revolution in Germany that would spread to her neighbours to the west and east were also dashed with the defeat of the Sparticus Putsch in 1919.   Communists throughout the region expected revolutions to occur quite rapidly, believing that the tide of history would move in their favour. In the 1920s especially after Stalin gained power the Soviet Union concentrated on building Socialism in one country ‘ instead of actively promoting revolution in the rest of Europe. The Soviet regime had too much to concentrate on internally without promoting revolution.   However the Soviet leaders were always looking for opportunities to cause revolutionary agitation abroad and funded communist parties in Germany, France, the United States and China as well as central and eastern Europe.   The Kremlin’s money certainly maintained the position of the various communist parties even if they were unable to gain power during the Inter-war period.  Ã‚   Communism was not particularly popular in parts of Central and Eastern Europe. Czechoslovak forces had actively fought against the Red Army during the Russian Civil War whilst the Poles had taken advantage of the collapse of the Tsarist empire (combined with German and Austrian defeat) to gain independence.   While P oland was in theory a democracy for most of the inter-war years it was virtually a dictatorship under Pilsudski and his successors most of it’s population being anti-German, anti-Russian and anti-Communist. Poland’s victory in the war of 1919-21 with the Soviet Union ended the threat of the Soviets providing military aid to communist revolutionaries or coups throughout the region during the 1920s and much of the 1930s. For the majority of the 1930s Stalin was more interested in collectivization, industrialization and carrying out the purges then actively seeking to promote revolution in central and Eastern Europe.   It was only after it became clear Hitler was a serious threat did Stalin seek allies in central and eastern Europe and giving their communist parties more instructions.   Poland’s communists had remained weak as they seen as too close to Moscow and had not been enthusiastic in campaigning for independence.   Across the region most of the commun ist parties would be banned at some stage during the Inter-war period and had to learn to survive as underground movements.   Experience of surviving underground proved beneficial during the war when communists became involved in resistance and partisan movements.  Ã‚   Future success would follow from gaining support amongst the peasantry. For much of the period communist parties were hampered by their image as been internationalist rather than nationalist in outlook, but conversely the communists also nurtured Yugoslav and Czechoslovak identities instead of rival ethnic nationalities.   It is worth noting how both states disintegrated rapidly after the end of communist rule.   The emergence of communism in Central and Eastern Europe was aided by the apparent failure of liberalism during the inter-war period. The states that appeared in the region in 1918 were to varying degrees economically backward. Only Czechoslovakia had a semblance of large-scale heavy industry and was also the closest to democracy. Poland and Hungary had industrial bases as well but also had large agricultural sectors. In the immediate aftermath of the First World War the region like the rest of Europe suffered from increasing unemployment and inflation that in turn produced social, political and industrial unrest. These conditions certainly gave the communists the opportunity to gain influence if not power. They largely missed this opportunity but not by the fascists and the far right when the situation deteriorated in the 1930s. The apparent economic recovery of the mid 1920s offered more stability. There was little or no economic co-operation between these countries and all suffere d after the Great slump of 1929. The economic dislocation was not as great as that of Germany that assisted the Nazi rise to power but it was bad enough to disrupt the capitalist system. In the 1930s the region laid between the two powers that offered a viable alternative to liberal democracy, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. Communists also made some ground in the region by emphasizing collective security and popular fronts with other parties as a counter for fascism, Nazism, and the ruling right wing authoritarian regimes. The concept of collective security was undermined by appeasement. Communists also had difficulty in explaining the Nazi – Soviet pact. Stalin had been prepared to defend Czechoslovakia but then eagerly partitioned Poland. The communists were however able to redeem themselves in the role they played resisting the Germans.   The use of popular fronts was a useful way of gaining popular support and obtaining power without people realising they voting for a communist regime. That strategy would prove most successful in Bulgaria.   The adoption of popular fronts came too late to prevent Hitler gaining power in Germany, without that the communists could have made further ground in the region during the Inter war years. The communists of central and eastern Europe like many of their counterparts in Comintern did not see fascism as a serious threat rather more as a portent of capitalisms demise. If they had have done perhaps the regions convergence to communism would have happened earlier. The same conditions that helped undermine liberal democracy favoured the fascists and the right wing authoritarian parties as much if not more than they favoured the communists.   Fascists might gain power but (the communists hoped) inadvertently accelerate the victory of Marxist Leninism in the process. In a roundabout way that is what happened in much of the region eventually.   Social and economic developments during the Inter-war years meant there was a radicalisation of the working and peasant classes across the region sometimes mixed with ethnic and nationalist tensions in countries such as Poland, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia.   Yugoslavia suffered not only German occupation but a civil war based on ethnic divisions. In reality for large parts of the region the communists seized power after 1945 due to the close proximity of the Soviet army rather than the success or otherwise of the national communist parties during the Inter-war period.   Defeating the Germans gave Stalin the opportunity to establish communist regions friendly or submissive towards the Soviet Union. Communists gained power with help from Moscow and with the understanding that the Soviet army would ultimately back them up. The only exception was Yugoslavia were Marshall Tito and his partisans seized power themselves after defeating the Germans and winning the civil war. Those opposed to the new communist regimes also realised that the Soviet Union was given a free hand in central and Eastern Europe in return for Britain and the United States having the main influence in the west were ironically the communists enjoyed mass support in France, Italy and Greece.   Stalin was not bothered by how enthusiastic the peoples of the ce ntral and Eastern Europe were towards having communist regimes, what mattered to him was the Soviet Union’s security.   Stalin clearly understood that without Soviet military intervention only Yugoslavia and Albania would have turned communist on their own, and they would prove unwilling to be told what to do from the Kremlin.   The Hungarian communists had not done particularly well since the crushing of the Soviet Republic but they did start to recover during the war. The Czechoslovak communists were only outlawed after absorption into the German Reich but their patriotism was important in gaining support. The Poles and Hungarians proved most reluctant to accept communism and only hard bargaining and the threat of Soviet intervention would keep their regimes in power. Although communist regimes were also forced on Romania and Bulgaria they were eventually more enthusiastic. Therefore the communist parties within central and Eastern Europe were able to lay some if not all the foundations for their gaining of power during the Inter war period. The strength and success of the communists differed from country to country.   The communists laid the strongest foundations in Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia despite facing right wing regimes, being allied to or occupied by the Germans.   In some ways the communists best success in the Inter-war period was presenting themselves as patriots in a time of impending war and as a force of resistance once it had started. The communists realised too late the possibility of popular fronts in preventing Hitler seizing power but their adoption in central and Eastern Europe proved useful at the end of the Inter-war period.   It was the prominent role that the Czechoslovak and Yugoslav communists played in resisting the Germans during the war that contributed most to their gaining of power.   They were success ful in portraying themselves as patriots and freedom fighters. In Bulgaria the popular front tactic in favour at the end of the Inter-war period was revived to gain power by stealth after 1945.   In other countries such as Poland, Hungary and Romania the communists had never been that popular and their main achievement was to survive the Inter –war period and the war in enough numbers to be installed in power in the wake of the Soviet army’s liberation of their various homelands.   Communists throughout the region would argue that they did not need to have mass support just the ability to seize control of their states, then the superiority of communism would win the public over any way.   Communists could also claim in the Inter-war years that liberal democracy could not survive the depression and fascism would not survive the forthcoming war to the death with communism. Bibliography Bideleux Jeffries   A History of Eastern Europe Crisis and Change (1998) Routledge, London Brendon, P. The Dark Valley a Panorama of the 1930s (2000) Jonathan Cape, London. Crampton, R .J Eastern Europe in the Twentieth Century (1994) Routledge, London and New York Harvey, R. – Comrades The Rise and Fall of World Communism (2003) John Murray, London Matthews, A   Nationalism in Europe 1789 1945 (2000) Hodder Staughton, London. Roberts, J M   History of Europe (1996) Schopflin, G. The Politics of Central Europe (1993) Blackwell, Oxford Service, R    A History of Modern Russia from Nicholas II to Putin (2003) Penguin, London Vadney, T.E The World Since 1945 (1992) Penguin, LondonVolkogonov, D. The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Empire – Political Leaders from Lenin to Gorbachev (1998) Harper Collins Publishers, London

Symbolic Meaning of Edna’s Arms and Teeth in Chopin’s The Awakening :: Chopin Awakening

Symbolic Meaning of Edna’s Arms and Teeth in Chopin’s The Awakening Although characters’ personalities are described vividly in The Awakening through action, dialogue, and descriptions of clothing, little is presented of the characters physically. While Edna is alone in Madame Antoine’s house, resting, two moments occur in which specific aspects of her body are highlighted. Prior to this scene, it is known only that she is considered pretty and that her hair and eyes are a similar yellow-brown color. At Madame Antoine’s house, however, where Edna loses sense of time while resting, first her arms and then her teeth demonstrate her peculiar strengths. It is problematic to consider Edna as strong so soon after having nearly swooned in the small island church. Although we know that she had slept little the night before and that her invitation to Robert was her first conscious move into a new sort of consciousness, her apparent moment of epiphany is accompanied by an all too typical display of feminine weakness. Moments later, lying in Madame Antoine’s bed, Edna is revealed as contradictorily strong. While stretching her â€Å"strong limbs that ached a little† Edna pauses and notices her arms. â€Å"She looked at her round arms as she held them straight up and rubbed them one after the other, observing closely, as if it were something she saw for the first time, the fine, firm quality and texture of her flesh† (58). In this description, her arms appear detached from the rest of her body. She discovers that she has strength—not of spirit or mind, which is what the rest of the narrative focuses on, but of bo dy. After she awakens, her attention is drawn away from her self personally, but the description of her returns to this physical strength when she finds the snack Madame Antoine had left for her. â€Å"Edna bit a piece from the brown loaf, tearing it with her strong, white teeth† (59). Because there is no other description in the paragraph, her teeth here stand out as odd. The action of biting the loaf rather than cutting or tearing it with her hands exhibits her characteristic carelessness, but also a bit of viciousness that is surprising. The teeth represent her latent strength here, in action rather than in rest, as she had seen her arms. It is unclear to me what significance, if any, there might be to these images of her arms and her teeth.

Yusuf Pathan

Yusuf Khan Pathan (born 17 November 1982 in Baroda) is an Indian cricketer. Pathan made his debut in first-class cricket in 2001/02. He is a powerful and aggressive right-handed batsman and a right-arm offbreak bowler. His half-brother Irfan Pathan is also an Indian cricketer. Though younger than Yusuf, it was Irfan who entered the Indian team first. Following his impressive performances in the 2007 Deodhar Trophy and the Inter-state domestic Twenty20 competition held in April 2007, Pathan was made a part of the Indian squad for the inaugural Twenty20 World Championship, held in South Africa in September 2007.He made his Twenty20 international debut in the final against Pakistan. He opened the batting for India in the match, and scored 15 runs in the process. [1] After a good domestic season in 2007/08, he was signed by the Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League for USD 475,000 (INR 1. 9 crore). In the 2008 IPL season, he scored 435 runs and took 8 wickets. He recorded the sea son's fastest half century (from 21 balls) against the Deccan Chargers, and was also the Man of the Match in the final against the Chennai Super Kings.Following his good showing in the IPL, he was selected for the Indian one-day team. After the IPL though he played all the games in the Kitply Cup and Asia Cup he got to bat only four times. He couldn't perform very well with the bat and the ball in the Asia Cup and in the Kitply Cup and so he wasn't selected for the Series. against Sri Lanka. He performed well in domestic circuit and impressed the selectors and was selected for the England ODI series in November. He scored a fifty off just 29 balls in the second ODI against England in Indore, on his 26th birthday. [2].Yusuf had made his One-Day International debut for India against Pakistan at Dhaka on 10 June 2008. He became a regular feature of the national One-Day International team, but has yet to make his test debut [3]. Even though Pathan could not repeat his first IPL performa nce in the second season, he was selected in the Indian team to play the 2009 ICC World Twenty20 championships in England. In the second of the Super 8 matches of India, he made an unbeaten 33 from 17 balls against England, despite his team losing the game and crashing out of the tournament before the semi-finals.In late-2009, Pathan was dropped from the limited overs team after a series of unproductive performances and the allrounder's position was taken over by Ravindra Jadeja. In the final of the 2010 Duleep Trophy cricket tournament, Pathan scored a hundred in the first innings and a double hundred in the second and led his team West Zone to a three wicket win over South Zone. Pathan made 108 in the first innings and an unbeaten 210 from 190 balls in the second innings. This became a world record in cricket for the highest successful run chase in first class cricket history. 4] On 13 March 2010, Pathan scored a century off 37 balls, in an Indian Premier League match against Mumb ai Indians. The innings also included record 11 consecutive hits to the boundary (6, 6, 6, 6, 4, 4, 6, 4, 4, 4, 4). On 7th December 2010 Y Pathan scored his maiden century against New Zealand in the 4th ODI at Chinnaswamy stadium Bangalore,he scored 123 runs off 97 balls with 7 sixes and 7 fours and he named match of the match award. At the award distribution ceremony he stated that â€Å"this knock will boost my career†. [citation needed]

Personal Statement of Computer Engineer - 836 Words

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